Player name: Caitlin Age: 17 (We talked on Samm’s plurk about that a little while ago) Contact:spinastoryshallweValeMeaUmbrae Other characters: N/A
Character name: Briar Moss (Original name unknown, formerly Roach)
Series:The Circle of Magic / The Circle Opens / The Circle Reforged
Canon point: The end of Street Magic, right after he uses his magic and one of the seed balls to tear the mute apart, scares the swordsman off, and looks at what he did. Bottom of page 277 in the paper back copy, to be exact, before he spots Evvy.
Summary: History: Here! I was writing it out, but that was at 6 paragraphs and the end of Sandry’s Book so this seemed easier.
Personality: He doesn’t trust people easily; considering he grew up on the streets since he was four until Niko brought him to Winding Circle, this really makes sense. Basically everyone he spent a lot of time around until he was at Discipline lied to him at some point or another, or betrayed him. That isn’t exactly a childhood that encourages people to trust others. He has gotten somewhat better at that now that he’s older, but he still doesn’t trust people. He listens to his instincts – if he feels like someone might be a thief, he watches them a little more closely.
He’s curious and likes to learn, and as a result, he loves reading almost as much as Tris does. He’s only known how to read and write for four years, but he loves reading and his writing is neat enough for Rosethorn. Even though he used to be a thief, he doesn't use the knowledge that he gains by eavesdropping on the girls to try and influence how they think of him. This doesn't mean he's always silent about what he hears; when he broke into Aymery's stuff, he told Tris what he heard from the mirror.
Briar’s mischievous, something rather expected from a former thief or a boy his age. He pulled on Sandry’s hair and pretended he didn’t when they were relaxing on the roof, and he did the same thing with a piece of straw, tickling her neck, until she got annoyed and used her magic to snatch it out of his fingers and tickle him instead. She stopped when he nearly fell off the roof, but he didn’t care about that, more fascinated with the fact she’d used magic to pull it from his fingers, since it was straw not some kind of thread.
He’s rather good at keeping his emotions off his face; he’s used to hiding the fact that he’s scared when he is. When hurt or scared, he makes really mean jokes, but when he's absolutely terrified, he doesn't. When Rosethorn is why he's scared, he also doesn't; if she is scaring him, or if he's scared for her. In both cases he doesn't hide behind mean jokes. When Tris pointed at him after he goaded her into throwing her lightning at the pile of boom-dust, he grabbed her arm, pointed it at the ground and hissed angry words at her, while shaking. He wasn't even sure which one of them was shaking more. However, he blushes rather easily. When Rosethorn gave him a look that meant “get your hand off of my sleeve”, he blushed. He also blushed when Jebilu brought up his tattoos. Evvy’s also made him blush because of something she said.
Briar is a flirt even at this age. He’s not serious about it, and he makes sure the ladies know this, but he does smile and flirt with basically any female – the exceptions are his sisters, his teacher, his other foster-mother, his student, and maybe a few others he’s met. He also does this with plants. If he is heard saying “Hello beautiful”, chances are he’s talking to that tree behind you, not you. Sorry, but that tree is gorgeous. Can’t you tell? He praises plants in such a way that, “[if] the trees had been young girls they would have blushed at his praise; they quivered instead, and continued to grow.”
Briar would rather die than admit certain things to the girls, for all that they were practically one person for a time. He apologizes, but that’s awkward, even when he’s apologizing to the girls. He’s still not quite used to it. Thanking people is easy though. If someone does something for him, he will choose to repay that debt sooner rather than later as a result of his upbringing in Deadman’s District.
He was a bit jealous of how Tris looked Aymery, but he quickly got over that. He wasn't jealous because he likes Tris that way; he was jealous because Aymery is the only member of Tris' family who was nice to her, and Tris shows it in how she looks at him. He loves her, but he loves Rosethorn, the girls, Lark, Little Bear, his shakkan, and plants. Evvy has already grown on him too. There is a short list of people that Briar would seriously regret crossing; the top of the list is Rosethorn, the other three are his sisters. If he had to, he would jump after a dying Rosethorn again and try to bring her back. When he jumped after her when he was ten, his response to Rosethorn saying Briar’d break the girls’ hearts if he died was that she was breaking his heart. Rosethorn is the most important person in the world to him; she’s even above his sisters.
He likes crowds, since it’s easier to blend in and out of them than it is an empty street if he’s being chased and the noise reminds him of his former home. Crowds are annoying for that very same reason when he’s chasing someone or trying to get somewhere fast though.
He will always eat if there is food, just in case he won’t get his next meal. Even after years away from the streets, that’s a hard habit to break. He still really likes his sleep, though he gets up around an hour after dawn every day.
Within a month, he restored the Water Temple’s medicine and herb stores, though that was basically all he did those days. It was intense magical labor, but he was the one who cooked when he got back to the house. Pouring strength into medicines and herbs isn’t as much hard work as trying to rejuvenate old soil.
He talks like he’s a plant sometimes; “You scared me out of a season’s growth!” It’s something he might have picked up from Rosethorn, since she talks like she’s a tree. Back when their magics were still mixing, he grieved over burned crocus bulbs in private. He felt them burn up and die. It’s because of his magic that he avoids stalls that peddle precious woods and gums, since they have enough living power to still hurt, and a touch shows him the original tree in its entire splendor.
Briar doesn’t like people who think of others as play toys. He’s met people like that before, and he’s made it a point to make them regret meeting him. He does, however, like guessing what kind of miniature tree nobles might want.
Powers: Briar is a powerful plant mage. At the age of thirteen, he and his sisters were considered full-fledged mages by great mages, their teachers. What that really means is that he is considered to have the same level of control over his powers as any other full-fledged mage, regardless of age. Most get the mage medallion at over eighteen, and you are only allowed to display the medallion openly once you are over eighteen years of age. He’ll keep to that here, though he will pull his being a mage on people if they demand to know why they should listen to a fourteen year old boy about medicines and things.
"I'm a nice safe little green mage, all bestrewn with flowers and weeds and things."
Queniall covered the beginnings of a smile with his hand. When he lowered it, his mouth under control again, he said, "Little plant-strewn green mages aren't safe, not when they wear a medallion at 18. I was considered a prodigy, and I was 21 when I got mine."
-Briar and Quenaill, pg 114 of The Will of the Empress
They got their mage medallions at 13. Let that sink in a little. Briar also has suspicions that the medallion means more than just that the wearer is an accredited mage. Since Queniall is a great mage, it is possible that that is what the medallions really say.
Always on: He can hear plants ‘speak’ if it’s quiet enough and uses that to figure out what’ll help them, whether that is more water, a bigger pot, or destroying the bugs that are eating them. Plants also turn toward him and will wrap around his feet because they like him. They wrap themselves around his hands if he doesn’t tell them not to; everything but the trees, anyway. He has to convince vines not to drape on him out of affection. Grass sprouts in the road in his wake.
He tried to die his hands with vegetable die and Sandry’s best needles when he was 13, and now he has moving vine tattoos that change color and shift even under his fingernails. He did this to remove the jail house tattoos he had and didn’t realize that vegetable die and his green magic might not leave the tattoos in his control or stationary.
He can block out his sisters, but enough brute force (like, say, that circle Sandry keeps) would be enough for any of the girls to force themselves into his head and to reopen the magical connection should he actually block them out. If he does choose to block them out, since that is a part of the magical connection that is always there, it would not count as a 3/day usage.
He can also show his sisters or a plant mage touching him or one of them (or a plant if the plants they are touching are connected), what he sees. This works in reverse too; his sisters can show him what they see. He can call other plant mages through a network of greenery, so if all the plants in Bastion were connected and another plant mage present, Briar would be able to call the other by touching plants and sending a message. The other plant mage would be able to touch any connected plant and hear the message. As this is basically the same as speaking, I think it wouldn’t qualify for a 3/day use. To his sisters, he feel/sounds like pine needles when they talk mind-to-mind. Feeding magic to his sisters is easier than going to sleep, simply because old habits are hard to break, and his magic wants to combine with theirs.
He can sense plant life, even seeds. He can also see magic. If a plant is sad enough, he can feel it and it’s really uncomfortable. If a plant is being fed good fertilizer, they sing their happiness to him.
Walking along the street, he briefly touches each plant that reaches for him from the ground and windows, giving them his affection before ordering them back to their pots and trellises. When he goes home, he circuits the first floor to greet every plant so they won’t droop until reassured of his affection. When he is incredibly angry (breathless with rage), his tattoos want to leave his skin and nearby plants want to come in and swamp whoever made him hurt/angry.
3/day:
Fast growth, like what he did with the pattern magic in Tris’s Book and with the mute in Street Magic, will be limited to three times without chance of failure.
Enhancing medicines and plants will also be 3/day, with the enhancement being a batch of the medicine, like the five baskets full of willow bark in Briar’s Book. He can do five medium baskets of bark or medicine as a 3/day use. This takes some concentration - he fixes the 'King' Willow in his head and does five baskets before he loses the image. The image is what he's channeling his magic through to feed the bark. If that doesn't work for Bastion, he will only be able to do one at a time for a use.
Destroying parasites/diseases and strengthening plants against disease/parasites will both count as a use of a 3/day. He just sends his magic through the plant with that intent, and it’s done. Nothing more to it.
He can suck the life out of new wood, shrinking them, or reawake memories inside wooden doors of when they were alive, causing them to grow explosively almost. This would also count.
He can also feed his sisters and other plant mages magic. If Tris (or Sandry, or Daja) gets tired, her magical reserves depleted, Briar can send her his magic, and it will work for her just as well as for him. Somewhere along their magical connection, it becomes the correct type of magic. Briar will not be able to send magic through his mental bond to any of his sisters more than 3/day. This will provide the other mage with one regained charge for 3/day usage.
He can send out his magic in a wide radius and interact with all the plants within it and his sisters. This would most likely be a 3/day.
Entry: He’ll be on the skyway with his sister (Tris) assuming they both get in. He can find his way to the Bastion easily enough, especially if the plant life along the skyway is, well, alive and speaking with him.
Other: As a part of his training, Briar is, essentially, a doctor. He will always help if he has the materials, and he can identify bones and things like that. He can splint broken bones and help with a lot of injuries, though some things he can’t fix with his magic and medicines. He is a pahan of plants after all, not people. He can identify various things by smell alone, including rotting flesh and numbtongue.
He can speak Chammuri, Tradertalk, and Imperial at his canon point. He can also read classic Kurchali.
He can spin (and grow, with the seeds) cotton and flax! So he can make cotton cloth and linen with some time.
He can appraise things by looking at them; sometimes he needs to actually hold them.
He carries nine knives on him, just in case he gets attacked. His wrist knives are held in their sheathes by hemp which comes undone at his command, letting the blades fall hilt first into his hands. He was listening for the girls’ voices a week after leaving Summersea. He counts, or lists varieties of plants, to calm down. Meditation also helps, but that's also used to control his power. If he goes too long without meditating, his power starts running a little wild, like a garden that hasn't been weeded in a while. It hasn't broken free because of a lack of meditation, but it's good for his nerves, plants, and magic to meditate near daily.
He’s 5’7” at 14.
As mentioned above, Briar hears plants talk. There are plant monsters. Can they ‘talk’ in a way that he can hear? I also noticed that it says 3 times a day 100% and after is 50%, so would nothing happen if he tries and fails after the first three? (Does something happen if it fails to work?)
Briar Moss - Circle of Magic - OU (sorry it's later than Tris')
Age: 17 (We talked on Samm’s plurk about that a little while ago)
Contact:
Other characters: N/A
Character name: Briar Moss (Original name unknown, formerly Roach)
Series: The Circle of Magic / The Circle Opens / The Circle Reforged
Canon point: The end of Street Magic, right after he uses his magic and one of the seed balls to tear the mute apart, scares the swordsman off, and looks at what he did. Bottom of page 277 in the paper back copy, to be exact, before he spots Evvy.
Summary: History: Here! I was writing it out, but that was at 6 paragraphs and the end of Sandry’s Book so this seemed easier.
Personality: He doesn’t trust people easily; considering he grew up on the streets since he was four until Niko brought him to Winding Circle, this really makes sense. Basically everyone he spent a lot of time around until he was at Discipline lied to him at some point or another, or betrayed him. That isn’t exactly a childhood that encourages people to trust others. He has gotten somewhat better at that now that he’s older, but he still doesn’t trust people. He listens to his instincts – if he feels like someone might be a thief, he watches them a little more closely.
He’s curious and likes to learn, and as a result, he loves reading almost as much as Tris does. He’s only known how to read and write for four years, but he loves reading and his writing is neat enough for Rosethorn. Even though he used to be a thief, he doesn't use the knowledge that he gains by eavesdropping on the girls to try and influence how they think of him. This doesn't mean he's always silent about what he hears; when he broke into Aymery's stuff, he told Tris what he heard from the mirror.
Briar’s mischievous, something rather expected from a former thief or a boy his age. He pulled on Sandry’s hair and pretended he didn’t when they were relaxing on the roof, and he did the same thing with a piece of straw, tickling her neck, until she got annoyed and used her magic to snatch it out of his fingers and tickle him instead. She stopped when he nearly fell off the roof, but he didn’t care about that, more fascinated with the fact she’d used magic to pull it from his fingers, since it was straw not some kind of thread.
He’s rather good at keeping his emotions off his face; he’s used to hiding the fact that he’s scared when he is. When hurt or scared, he makes really mean jokes, but when he's absolutely terrified, he doesn't. When Rosethorn is why he's scared, he also doesn't; if she is scaring him, or if he's scared for her. In both cases he doesn't hide behind mean jokes. When Tris pointed at him after he goaded her into throwing her lightning at the pile of boom-dust, he grabbed her arm, pointed it at the ground and hissed angry words at her, while shaking. He wasn't even sure which one of them was shaking more. However, he blushes rather easily. When Rosethorn gave him a look that meant “get your hand off of my sleeve”, he blushed. He also blushed when Jebilu brought up his tattoos. Evvy’s also made him blush because of something she said.
Briar is a flirt even at this age. He’s not serious about it, and he makes sure the ladies know this, but he does smile and flirt with basically any female – the exceptions are his sisters, his teacher, his other foster-mother, his student, and maybe a few others he’s met. He also does this with plants. If he is heard saying “Hello beautiful”, chances are he’s talking to that tree behind you, not you. Sorry, but that tree is gorgeous. Can’t you tell? He praises plants in such a way that, “[if] the trees had been young girls they would have blushed at his praise; they quivered instead, and continued to grow.”
Briar would rather die than admit certain things to the girls, for all that they were practically one person for a time. He apologizes, but that’s awkward, even when he’s apologizing to the girls. He’s still not quite used to it. Thanking people is easy though. If someone does something for him, he will choose to repay that debt sooner rather than later as a result of his upbringing in Deadman’s District.
He was a bit jealous of how Tris looked Aymery, but he quickly got over that. He wasn't jealous because he likes Tris that way; he was jealous because Aymery is the only member of Tris' family who was nice to her, and Tris shows it in how she looks at him. He loves her, but he loves Rosethorn, the girls, Lark, Little Bear, his shakkan, and plants. Evvy has already grown on him too. There is a short list of people that Briar would seriously regret crossing; the top of the list is Rosethorn, the other three are his sisters. If he had to, he would jump after a dying Rosethorn again and try to bring her back. When he jumped after her when he was ten, his response to Rosethorn saying Briar’d break the girls’ hearts if he died was that she was breaking his heart. Rosethorn is the most important person in the world to him; she’s even above his sisters.
He likes crowds, since it’s easier to blend in and out of them than it is an empty street if he’s being chased and the noise reminds him of his former home. Crowds are annoying for that very same reason when he’s chasing someone or trying to get somewhere fast though.
He will always eat if there is food, just in case he won’t get his next meal. Even after years away from the streets, that’s a hard habit to break. He still really likes his sleep, though he gets up around an hour after dawn every day.
Within a month, he restored the Water Temple’s medicine and herb stores, though that was basically all he did those days. It was intense magical labor, but he was the one who cooked when he got back to the house. Pouring strength into medicines and herbs isn’t as much hard work as trying to rejuvenate old soil.
He talks like he’s a plant sometimes; “You scared me out of a season’s growth!” It’s something he might have picked up from Rosethorn, since she talks like she’s a tree. Back when their magics were still mixing, he grieved over burned crocus bulbs in private. He felt them burn up and die. It’s because of his magic that he avoids stalls that peddle precious woods and gums, since they have enough living power to still hurt, and a touch shows him the original tree in its entire splendor.
Briar doesn’t like people who think of others as play toys. He’s met people like that before, and he’s made it a point to make them regret meeting him. He does, however, like guessing what kind of miniature tree nobles might want.
Powers: Briar is a powerful plant mage. At the age of thirteen, he and his sisters were considered full-fledged mages by great mages, their teachers. What that really means is that he is considered to have the same level of control over his powers as any other full-fledged mage, regardless of age. Most get the mage medallion at over eighteen, and you are only allowed to display the medallion openly once you are over eighteen years of age. He’ll keep to that here, though he will pull his being a mage on people if they demand to know why they should listen to a fourteen year old boy about medicines and things.
"I'm a nice safe little green mage, all bestrewn with flowers and weeds and things."
Queniall covered the beginnings of a smile with his hand. When he lowered it, his mouth under control again, he said, "Little plant-strewn green mages aren't safe, not when they wear a medallion at 18. I was considered a prodigy, and I was 21 when I got mine."
-Briar and Quenaill, pg 114 of The Will of the Empress
They got their mage medallions at 13. Let that sink in a little. Briar also has suspicions that the medallion means more than just that the wearer is an accredited mage. Since Queniall is a great mage, it is possible that that is what the medallions really say.
Always on: He can hear plants ‘speak’ if it’s quiet enough and uses that to figure out what’ll help them, whether that is more water, a bigger pot, or destroying the bugs that are eating them. Plants also turn toward him and will wrap around his feet because they like him. They wrap themselves around his hands if he doesn’t tell them not to; everything but the trees, anyway. He has to convince vines not to drape on him out of affection. Grass sprouts in the road in his wake.
He tried to die his hands with vegetable die and Sandry’s best needles when he was 13, and now he has moving vine tattoos that change color and shift even under his fingernails. He did this to remove the jail house tattoos he had and didn’t realize that vegetable die and his green magic might not leave the tattoos in his control or stationary.
He can block out his sisters, but enough brute force (like, say, that circle Sandry keeps) would be enough for any of the girls to force themselves into his head and to reopen the magical connection should he actually block them out. If he does choose to block them out, since that is a part of the magical connection that is always there, it would not count as a 3/day usage.
He can also show his sisters or a plant mage touching him or one of them (or a plant if the plants they are touching are connected), what he sees. This works in reverse too; his sisters can show him what they see. He can call other plant mages through a network of greenery, so if all the plants in Bastion were connected and another plant mage present, Briar would be able to call the other by touching plants and sending a message. The other plant mage would be able to touch any connected plant and hear the message. As this is basically the same as speaking, I think it wouldn’t qualify for a 3/day use. To his sisters, he feel/sounds like pine needles when they talk mind-to-mind. Feeding magic to his sisters is easier than going to sleep, simply because old habits are hard to break, and his magic wants to combine with theirs.
He can sense plant life, even seeds. He can also see magic. If a plant is sad enough, he can feel it and it’s really uncomfortable. If a plant is being fed good fertilizer, they sing their happiness to him.
Walking along the street, he briefly touches each plant that reaches for him from the ground and windows, giving them his affection before ordering them back to their pots and trellises. When he goes home, he circuits the first floor to greet every plant so they won’t droop until reassured of his affection. When he is incredibly angry (breathless with rage), his tattoos want to leave his skin and nearby plants want to come in and swamp whoever made him hurt/angry.
3/day:
Fast growth, like what he did with the pattern magic in Tris’s Book and with the mute in Street Magic, will be limited to three times without chance of failure.
Enhancing medicines and plants will also be 3/day, with the enhancement being a batch of the medicine, like the five baskets full of willow bark in Briar’s Book. He can do five medium baskets of bark or medicine as a 3/day use. This takes some concentration - he fixes the 'King' Willow in his head and does five baskets before he loses the image. The image is what he's channeling his magic through to feed the bark. If that doesn't work for Bastion, he will only be able to do one at a time for a use.
Destroying parasites/diseases and strengthening plants against disease/parasites will both count as a use of a 3/day. He just sends his magic through the plant with that intent, and it’s done. Nothing more to it.
He can suck the life out of new wood, shrinking them, or reawake memories inside wooden doors of when they were alive, causing them to grow explosively almost. This would also count.
He can also feed his sisters and other plant mages magic. If Tris (or Sandry, or Daja) gets tired, her magical reserves depleted, Briar can send her his magic, and it will work for her just as well as for him. Somewhere along their magical connection, it becomes the correct type of magic. Briar will not be able to send magic through his mental bond to any of his sisters more than 3/day. This will provide the other mage with one regained charge for 3/day usage.
He can send out his magic in a wide radius and interact with all the plants within it and his sisters. This would most likely be a 3/day.
Entry: He’ll be on the skyway with his sister (Tris) assuming they both get in. He can find his way to the Bastion easily enough, especially if the plant life along the skyway is, well, alive and speaking with him.
Other: As a part of his training, Briar is, essentially, a doctor. He will always help if he has the materials, and he can identify bones and things like that. He can splint broken bones and help with a lot of injuries, though some things he can’t fix with his magic and medicines. He is a pahan of plants after all, not people. He can identify various things by smell alone, including rotting flesh and numbtongue.
He can speak Chammuri, Tradertalk, and Imperial at his canon point. He can also read classic Kurchali.
He can spin (and grow, with the seeds) cotton and flax! So he can make cotton cloth and linen with some time.
He can appraise things by looking at them; sometimes he needs to actually hold them.
He carries nine knives on him, just in case he gets attacked. His wrist knives are held in their sheathes by hemp which comes undone at his command, letting the blades fall hilt first into his hands. He was listening for the girls’ voices a week after leaving Summersea. He counts, or lists varieties of plants, to calm down. Meditation also helps, but that's also used to control his power. If he goes too long without meditating, his power starts running a little wild, like a garden that hasn't been weeded in a while. It hasn't broken free because of a lack of meditation, but it's good for his nerves, plants, and magic to meditate near daily.
He’s 5’7” at 14.
As mentioned above, Briar hears plants talk. There are plant monsters. Can they ‘talk’ in a way that he can hear? I also noticed that it says 3 times a day 100% and after is 50%, so would nothing happen if he tries and fails after the first three? (Does something happen if it fails to work?)